Teaching Classes – RV in Mexico
It was a lifetime ago really.
It all started with a meeting with our taxaqtion accountant. Bill and I owned and operated a government relations firm in British Columbia called BC PSI. It was very successful.
During our annual meeting/conference with our taxation accountant, he laughed and said “You guys sure love Mexico. You’ve got to figure how to write all those trips off.”
Those words haunted me. Yes we made a lot of trips to Mexico. We loved it. Our kids loved it. We had fun and we unwound for stress ful jobs as well as both holding office; Bill as a City Councillor and me as a school trustee.
Yes those words haunted me.
So in my spare time I started writing. I wrote advice on how to drive and RV in Mexico – something that Bill and I knew quite a lot about. Bill got involved to because it was our passion and because we always seem to end up working together. We are that kind of team.
But we needed a format. I figured the next big wave would be the internet.
So I did some research and took some classes. At that time there were very few “Web Page Programs.” I started out learning code.
I started building a site. We called it “ON THE ROAD IN.” Our vision was that of courser we would start with Mexico and then we would branch off to different countries. The latter thought didn’t pan out as Mexico is very large and we got sidetracked with family and other projects.
And the website grew very quickly. There weren’t that many webs on Mexico tourism so we filled a niche not only for camping but for visiting various places in this magical country.
Our trips to Mexico became research projects and we travelled the country taking pictures and writing about various camping opportunities.
The website became populated and grew very quickly. Too quickly.
It created some doubt in my mind. What was I missing? What did newbies want or need to know? What could we offer that would give them safe, valuable information.
And I came up with another idea. I would teach a night school course call RVing in Mexico and would soom figure out which questions were asked the most. My pupils would give me the questions and I could make sure that I could provide them with the answers.
So I approached my local School Board and gave them a course outline. 5 hours, coving various topics from what to wear, what to bring for food to how to give a bribe. The Night school coordinator approved the course and laid out what I could do to make the course attractive.
“Don’t expect any more than 5 attendees for your first class” she advised. “It’s a fairly esoteric topic and won’t attract that many people.”
“But it sounds like fun though and you can attract a few more students by writing a press release. Distribute it to all the media but also send it to RV dealers and camping supply houses.”
The class was 2 months away so I had plenty of time to prepare. I made sure I had a display ready of maps, music. Books and some art.
Then the bomb hit.
It was a Sunday morning and as usual I went groggily to my front door to pick up the Sunday paper called the Province. As a lead headline on the front page “RV In Mexico” directed me to the travel section.
“Bill” I shouted out as I walked to the bedroom “Someone has stolen our idea” By the time I reached the bedroom door I realized that The article was about us. In fact the 3 page spread was our press release printed ver Batum. All the pictures were Bill’s. “
The following day I received a phone call from the night school coordinator. “The class is full,” she said.”Can you teach another one a night later?” I agreed.
And I agreed three more times.
I learned a lot in those classes about what the soon to be travellers wanted to know. Bill came along right from the beginning to calm my nerves, help me set up the computer and displays. Right from the beginning it became the Bill and Dorothy show with him explaining one thing or another, drifing off and telling a personal story or correcting my adivse or recommendation.
We had fun.
In the following years we held the course ourselves in hotel meeting rooms throughout BC and Alberta. We would get a room for 50 to 100 people and then spend the next 5 hours going through the basics and leading an imaginary caravan down the coast. We started teaching in Washington State, Oregon and Arizona. It was fun.
It was so much fun that our kids would often join us in the seminars and add their two bits regarding information, stories and destinations.